Summary: Wait, wait, wait a second. Things aren't going right anymore. There wasn't...That wasn't supposed to happen! No, no, NO! We have to start over. Let's give this a shot...Reverse! Reverse. Esrever...Eci dna Erif? Did ti krow?
Rating: PG-13 For safety!
Pairing: John/Bobby. Eventually.
Chapter: 1/?
Notes: AU. Power swap. Bobby’s about eight in this, and John’s around…nine or something.
Dedication: srslyslytherin and and train_diskense LOVE for zombeeism too, even if she isn’t here to see this. ): Thanks to exisandohs for the beta. [LJ USERS]<333
Other: So firstly, hopefully I got all of that right. Anyway. Yes. This started off as a December Challenge thing, but got turned into so much more...So yeah. Ch. 1=december challenge entry thing, chapters after this are...not. :3 This is probably the longest chapter I've ever written >>; and I'm extremely proud of it and...lookie! I even created a banner thingy for my fic! Anyway, I really like this...Hopefully I'm gonna update it soon! <33
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. And I only did this 'cause Kaylie said so. And. Why isn't fanfiction a subforum of the writers? xD That would've made more sense.
banner thing
Here we go.
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Chapter One: It’s not everyday you get to be a superhero!
He looked outside his window, little hands finding the bottom ledge of his window after unlocking it, pushing the window up and open. The cold wind and the thick snowflakes which were flying everywhere outside hardly bothered him, despite their nipping at his face.
Strangely, Robert Drake had always been…warmer than any “normal” person. Normal here being in a sense of words, meaning, people who weren’t as warm as him, people who weren’t mutants, though Bobby didn’t know that yet. Not many did.
He’d been getting hotter in the past few weeks, and didn’t even notice it. Just sometimes, his mother had said something, or, or his Popsicle melted too fast. He didn’t really pay attention to that at all.
He was only eight. It hadn’t been going on for long and…well. Popsicles always melt fast in summer. Yeah. That was beside the point now. The cold never bothered him. So he hardly noticed it, he didn’t like it as much as staying warm, but he could run around in boxers and socks outside and hardly feel the cold (though, as he had soon figured out, he would most likely catch a cold).
Except he had fallen in love with snow, as cold as it was.
Now, back to reality.
It hadn’t been that cold before he went to bed, he remembered. He got to watch a couple of appropriate shows before bedtime, which was 7:00 (though tonight he got lucky and got to stay up until 8:00 tonight) and had looked out the window in hopes that it would be snowing and no school tomorrow (he’d forgotten that it was Christmas vacation and he didn’t have school the next day anyway). Because as much as he loved school and his friends and everything, he loved snow days because he could go outside and play with his friends almost as long as he liked. But it hadn’t been snowing, and Bobby had been disappointed.
Looking out the window, Bobby tried to see something, anything, but…nothing. Tried to calm himself down from his rude awakening.
Bobby pulled his head inside the window, looking around his room. He spotted a night light which was bright by his feet, his poster of some famous skier that his mom thought he’d like, his small TV which he was only allowed to play Disney movies on…and his eyes settled on his alarm clock, which was blaring the…ungodly hour that he had woken up. 2:36 A.M.
He…remembered just how he had woken up. Dreams of fire and ice and…and things much too terrifying for Bobby, as young as he was, to understand.
His small fingers scrabbled to shut the window, because just then he realized how angry his mom would be if she caught him awake at this time at night. Except if he told her he was having nightmares, and then he’d get to sleep in his parents’ room (but if he did that, he’d…well he just wouldn’t do that, because that wasn’t very ‘big kid’ of him). He’d rather be a big kid and go to bed all by himself and forget he ever woke up at this time.
And then…suddenly a scream split the air. It was quiet enough that if Bobby had closed the window, he wouldn’t have heard it, but it was loud enough that he could hear it through the wind.
Little Bobby felt a chill run up his spine, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold.
He had to be fast, he knew. Who could tell when his mother woke up and just decided to check in on him, or go downstairs for a drink? He didn’t want to get caught, not at all. He didn’t even want to be doing this, but his curiosity had overruled that. It wasn’t everyday that Bobby could get to be a superhero, like Batman or Superman or Spiderman or…or those cool guys like that.
He pushed the worry away, forgetting about it now that he had more important things to think about. Like his amazing costume. It was going to have a cape, and like, everything. Oh yeah. The…scream. He had to figure out who was hurt, who needed saving.
Bobby ran around his room, his bare feet padding softly against the dark blue carpet of his room.
He threw some pillows on his bed (he’d gotten rid of his plastic car bed-frame his past birthday, claiming he was too big for it and had gotten a wooden one. He really wished he hadn’t) and then pulled his blankets over the pillows, a trick that Bobby had learned when he and his best friend Daniel had gone and hid from his mother when they were sleeping over to go play video games when they were supposed to be sleeping. Just incase. And he wouldn’t be gone long anyway, he promised himself.
Glancing around sneakily, Bobby shut off his light and slowly crept downstairs, pretending he was, like, a ninja or something. Yeah. They were cool.
Going to his back porch, Bobby pulled his snow-pants on (after much ruffling in the closet, of course. His mother had been hiding them from him recently because Bobby liked to dress up in them and take Ronny outside and play dogsled because of some recent movie that he saw) and slid on his rather large and thick Jacket that his mother had insisted he’d wear. After that, boots went on over his still-sockless feet and a dark blue hat and quickly after was a pair of light blue mittens. His mother always told him just how nice he looked in blue.
The cold didn’t bother him that much anyway, remember? Of course he didn’t like it that much, but the fact was, he could be out and it wouldn’t bother him. …Okay, so maybe this cold was bothering him, as he opened the door and slipped outside.
The wind was howling now as the thick snow flew everywhere. It was so cold, but Bobby didn’t, wouldn’t let himself mind it.
He…suddenly felt so rebellious. It was around 2:40 in the morning, and it was snowing and he was actually outside…His heart sped up with exhilaration.
The door shut behind him and Bobby started to walk off through the snow, determined to play the superhero. And…And then suddenly the joy was gone, that part of the exhilaration was gone as he realized…
He was all alone. Outside (in his backyard though didn’t make it as bad). In the morning where he should be sleeping and…
Bobby’s heart kept pounding, yet not with exhilaration anymore, with fear. He turned around and…another cry cut through the air.
His blue eyes shot open and Bobby turned around to go…he had to. He had to help whoever was hurt. A muffled cry again, and Bobby definitely did turn and go to…to his playground. He’d gotten that from his grandmother three years ago. His playground?
He didn’t really understand that, no, not at all. Why was somebody in his playground?
The lump of a boy with all those clothes slowly (he kept falling and nearly disappearing under the rather large piles of snow), made his way to his playground, to the tunnel entrance that was ‘hidden’ underneath a plastic box (you couldn’t get to it that way),and the fat square top that you had to climb a rope ladder to get up to, where you then slid down into the tunnel and unless you had magical tunnel climbing skills; (and Bobby did, in his opinion). You had to go through the back way, which led all the way to the very heart of the playground (which wasn’t really that far, actually) which happened to be another square ‘house’ type thing, with two lack plastic steering wheels.
Waddling over to the rope ladder which was mostly covered in the snow, somehow, Bobby managed to get on his belly and pull himself up. He stood after a moment on the platform, looking around the backyard. Ha! He did it! And…another cry reminded him of just why he was outside.
Bobby turned around, now almost sure it was coming from his tunnel. And…He swallowed, before…Woooshhh
A particularly strong gust of wind suddenly pushed Bobby forward, where he let out a cry as he fell towards the tunnel and…And met a most surprising sight. It was a boy, who looked…older than him, or something, and…was freezing up his tunnel. What? Bobby gasped as the boy’s frosty eyes flew open at the new person.
The new boy tried to scramble away from the stranger, but Bobby was quick to tackle the frozen boy in a hug. “No, no, no, no, no!” He shook his head, his stubborn lips forming a pout. “No don’t run away. You’re too cold! Why’re you outside? Why’re you so cold? Who’re you?” He asked after a moment, tilting his head as the boy struggled. And he was almost slipping out of Bobby’s grip before… “Come on, let’s go inside. You’re coming to my house, please. I don’t like you out here, kid, and, and… You’re cold. In the morning, we can figure out where you parents are.” He said, remembering what the awesome superheroes said and improvising.
The new boy stopped struggling as much at that. Because…It was really cold, and he had surprisingly stopped…freezing. So he started to walk towards where the kid was making him go, and being quiet about it, even when his inner instincts screamed against this. Oh well. He wouldn’t be here for long, he could just nick some food, have a warm place to sleep, grab some clothes, maybe, and whatever the hell else he could find and be out of there before the parents woke up.
Bobby struggled up the slide while tugging along the other. They somehow managed to get inside, fighting the cruel wind and the cold snow. Bobby struggled to open the door, fingers fumbling for a few moments before he finally and successfully opened it. He flew inside the porch, quickly shedding his things and finally revealing his dark green striped pajamas once again.
A burst of warm air had met them once the door was opened. Bobby quickly shoved his snow clothes into the very back of the closet, slipping his boots and mittens off and tossing them in there too. Which was when he suddenly turned to the skittish boy who was in the room.
Bobby grinned at him and took his hand, pulling him off into the hallway and into the kitchen. “I’m not supposed to have food this late—or even be up this late—but uhm, you want something?” He asked and the kid gave a slow nod.
Bobby just grinned and, well, pulled out some packets of those crackers with peanut butter inside and started to pull the boy upstairs. “Um, maybe I should wake mom up.” He said absently, and…then turned to the boy, tilting his head again.
“What’s your name?”
“…John.” He said after a bit of hesitation. He hadn’t really heard the things about mutants on the news, and it’d been cold outside before so…Of course he didn’t think he was one.
John watched the little boy carefully, with his short blonde hair and his too-blue eyes. He looked pretty. Like an angel…or something.
Bobby, as well, was looking at the other boy curiously. John…John had kind of long-ish dark brown hair that looked as if it was…well, Bobby didn’t know what it was, but he knew that John needed a bath. And he looked really hungry too.
“Just say that I found you on the porch or something, and I’ll go wake mom up.” He said with a slight grin tugging on his lips. Bobby, truthfully, was nervous about getting in trouble at this time (again, he was supposed to be sleeping, not playing superheroes) but…he kept quiet. He felt a strange sense of protectiveness for the other boy which overruled his fear, much like the previous curiosity which had overruled it before. It didn’t matter that he hardly knew this boy, this John, he already felt like John was his brother or something. His best friend. Yeah.
So, Bobby tugged John over to his room and sat him on the bed after taking the pillows and blankets off and tossing them somewhere (he wasn’t exactly sure where they landed but he did know they were somewhere in his room) clearing a spot for John, before he took his hand again and sat him down on the bed, handing him the of the six peanut-butter crackers wrapped in plastic. “Stay.” He said with a nod, before turning and going to go wake up Mom.
John was unsure of what to do. Should he stay, should he go? (And little did he know, but this question was going to appear much later in life, and would again have something to do with Bobby, and a girl). He didn’t know, but for the moment he was going to stay and eat these crackers. He always did like peanut butter.
Bobby made sure he was at least a bit quiet as he crept through the hallways. He didn’t want to wake Ronny up, the baby was fussy enough as it was because he had to move out of their parents’ bed and sleep in his own room which was just across the hall from theirs.
Turning the knob of the door to his parents’ room, Bobby hesitated before pushing the door in and peering inside the room, seeing his mom and dad sleeping. Slowly and quietly, even quieter than that ninja he was before, Bobby stalked over to the bed, reaching his hand out and shaking his mom’s shoulder slightly.
“Mom?” He whispered, not wanting to wake dad up. Because he wasn’t sure how dad would react to this, but he figured that Mom would know how to deal with John better than his dad would. He shook her shoulder again when she stirred. “Bobby?” She said just as quietly, voice thick with sleep. He shook her shoulder a couple more times, before she was even slightly awake.
Madeline Drake sat up from her sleeping position in her and her husband’s shared bed, raising her hand to rub sleep from her eyes. She glanced around, still waking up and shaking the fogginess from her mind, before her eyes set on the clock. She was shocked. It was 3:22 A.M.
“Why are you awake, Bobby, what happened?” She asked softly, as Bobby grabbed her hand which had moved to her lap after she was semi-awake.
“Mom, you have to help. Because like, I found this kid on our porch and, and…” That was enough to wake her up. A worried frown went on her lips. “What happened, Bobby, did he hurt you?”
Bobby just shook his head, wondering why mom would think that John hurt him, because it just didn’t make any sense, and besides, Bobby thought John was too small to hurt him, or, well, too…John. Even if he didn’t really know the other one yet. “C’mon, Mom, he needs to take a bath and he’s hungry and cold and, John’s just a kid like me!” Bobby said with a pout, trying to pull his mother off towards his room.
Madeline stood up with a bit of a sigh, frown deepening on her lips. “Come on then, Bobby, let’s see this child.”
John was convinced that Bobby had gone to go rat him out to the cops or something, and he’d be sent to a foster home, just like they’d try to send him there after his parents had died, and the time after he ran away, and the time after that, and after that…Until they just gave up. At least those ones. Yeah, like they really cared about him. This foster home, however, may be different…He hated foster homes. But anyway, it’d be terrible to be sent to a foster home again, but he waited right there on the bed like Bobby told him to. He didn’t know why, but he stayed there, eating his crackers as slow as he could (despite the stomach-aches, on the street you had to eat fast or your food could and probably would be taken fro you quicker than you got it) because he didn’t think that anybody here would be interested in eating his crackers. They had hundreds or whatever of their own anyway. Nevertheless, he still ate pretty fast.
When Bobby came back with his parent-in-tow, John was surprised. He heard a gasp of shock from the mother of Bobby and John jumped, scurrying immediately over to the window, fingers scrabbling to try and push it up because this was a bad idea in the first place, he never should’ve trusted the boy and he was going to jump and run and—
Bobby was fast as he leapt forward, jumping to and clinging to John’s arm, no matter how dirty it may be. “No! Don’t go, not yet!” He cried out rather desperately (Remember, Bobby had taken that liking to John against the odds, and despite the short time that they shared together).
And that’s when John froze (no, not literally this time) realizing that he…rather liked the slight heat coming from the boy. From Bobby. He felt as if he’d just truly realized it now. And…boy-Bobby was nice to him, really he was. Against all odds he’d heard him, he’d brought him inside, even though he was literally freezing and dieing outside, given him food…That was huge amounts of generosity in John’s case. He wasn’t sure still, though. But…he would leave…if…if the…He glanced towards the mother who just stood there, shocked. In the few moments that John had stopped struggling; Bobby had pulled the shorter boy up in his arms and held him close, looking up at him.
“Please, mom. He’s got nowhere else to go, and, and,” he paused to try and think of another reason why John should stay (besides the obvious ‘I want him to stay’) and finally came up with one. “It’s a blizzard outside, mom. You can’t just throw him outside again!” His lips formed into a pout once again. Yes, Bobby liked to use his looks to get his way. Only in drastic cases, though, and he figured that this was one of those special times. All the other times it was just naughty.
Madeline…wasn’t sure what to do. Should she take this…(and at this point she looked over the scummy, greasy, dirty boy once again) boy into her home? Well it would be the right thing to do…And Bobby did like him (she was always saying about how Bobby needed more guy friends, because the only children that came over her house these days were Daniel—he was a troublemaker, she didn’t like him—and his sister Molly, as well as the two twins that lived next door, Betty and Elizabeth. Oh, and that girl from school, Christina. Occasionally Thomas came from across the street, but that still wasn’t much. And Bobby didn’t find that much interest in any of their relatives—never mind the fact that they were, at the very youngest, 5 years older than him) and he seemed to like Bobby just fine. Once he got cleaned up, he was probably a fine boy…
A yawn escaped her lips. “Bobby, he can stay for a few days, at the very least. I’ll have to talk to your father in the morning.” Or…afternoon. Some nice, pleasant time of the day. She told them after a few moments of hesitation.
“Come on, then, let’s get your friend—“ and Bobby was taught to never interrupt his mother or any other adults, to respect them, but he thought that now was an exception (and he was tired, so he could always use the excuse that he forgot, even if he didn’t). “John. His name is John, mom.” Bobby said quickly, pulling the smaller boy even closer to him, a silly grin on Bobby’s face. John didn’t know what to think, so he just stayed there.
Madeline gave a slight nod. “Alright, Bobby.” She was smiling a bit. “Next time, don’t interrupt, alright?” She reminded with a soft laugh, and Bobby nodded, cheeks slightly red. “Let’s give John and you a nice bath and get you both clothed in fresh pajamas,” because Bobby by then looked dirty too, “And then you’ll go off to bed. I’ll let you boys sleep in…” She paused, her smile turning into a bit of a frown. “Remember, Bobby, we’re going to your grandparents’ for Christmas dinner later, and I suppose we should get your friend some clothes…” But that was all for tomorrow, and she was tired now so she stopped talking about that. They’d have to talk John through the dinner thing, poor boy didn’t seem like he’d ever shared a real Christmas dinner before, or anything like that, for that matter. She finished and turned around, going to go set up a bathtub for the two boys. No matter the hour, she wouldn’t let…John touch anything in that state of grime, but poor boy for even being that dirty.
Bobby looked up at John, a triumphant grin on his face. “See, I told you! You can stay! We’ll be, like, best friends!” He chattered, pulling away from him and taking John’s hand in his.
John…smiled slightly at Bobby. He didn’t really think that Bobby would actually want to stay, as Bobby tugged him along to their bathroom. Bobby was warm, though, and seemed to like him…His mother didn’t seem to mind him too much, either. Yeah…Maybe he could give this a try, give the whole families thing a try again. But he wasn’t promising anything. ‘Family’ had failed him before (except, that ‘family’ had been ******** up, so maybe they hadn’t counted as a real family) so he wasn’t sure this one would work out in the end. But for now…now, John was going to give this one a chance. And besides. It was snowing, this was someplace warm, and he was getting a bath. He hadn’t had a proper bath in ages…Bobby’s chattering suddenly stopped, and so did Bobby.
Bobby turned around, looking at him funny. “You okay?” And John paused, before he gave another slight smile. “Yeah…Just thinking.” Bobby nodded, satisfied with that reply as he started to chatter again, speaking slower (he did, however, start over, figuring that John hadn’t really paid any attention to any word that he had been saying).
Bobby talked about his family. His baby brother, Ronny, his mom, Madeline, and his dad William. Oh, and his new brother, John. But “Johnny, you already know of John, considering you are him so I don’t need to really talk about him much.” And Bobby laughed at that, thinking that it was very cunning of him.
Bobby stopped at the bathroom, where the sounds of running water could be heard inside. The wooden door was wide open, and John could see…Bobby’s mother setting up a bath for them. Bobby pulled him inside with a grin, as Bobby’s mom shut of the water. He could now see the thick bubbles that were in the water, and could smell the scent of watermelons wafting around the room, and John couldn’t help but feel slightly giddy. Because…A bubble bath! Really, the prospect was entertaining.
Then…Bobby started to take off John’s clothes, when John couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “I’m not a baby, you know!” He said and, after a moment, he started to take off his clothes. Not that he wanted to, but he just had to take these of, bathe, and then he would have brand new clothes, then they could sleep. Bobby giggled a bit at John’s reaction, and started to take off his own clothes. He was already tired; the feeling of excitement ad exhilaration had gone, replaced by a feeling of content-ness, of warmth, of a happy tiredness.
Madeline lifted Bobby up by the arms and sat him gently in the tub, where he sat down, the area up to his shoulders covered in bubbles. He blinked and watched John, waiting for him to come in. “C’mon Johnny, the waters just right.” He said with another giggle.
John didn’t have too much of a problem undressing in front of mothers, but he still hesitated. It was the fathers that he hated. The mothers always had soft spots for him, but John tended to land with the worst fathers, the ones who…hurt him really badly. Speaking of badly…he remembered the bruises on his legs and…He gave a bit of a sigh, before turning and closing the door, shirt off his frail and skinny body.
Once the door was closed, John moved over to the tub and took his pants and boxers off, quickly, socks and ‘shoes’ (he didn’t think those pathetic pieces of rubber and whatever were really shoes) were already gone, before John slid quickly into the tub, accidentally slipping and falling on Bobby.
Bobby just let out a bit of a giggle-cry sort of thing, as him and John rolled a bit in the tub and got completely soaked. John couldn’t help but grin as well at Bobby, until they were suddenly stopped by a tired Madeline, who was soaked with all their splashing around. She couldn’t help but chuckle tiredly as she righted up the boys, and started to put soap in John’s hair (he needed it most) and started to rub gently with her fingers, massaging the soap in so it got all the filth out (to her disgust, the soap was turning some sort of brown color) and John only flinched at first, before letting her soap up his hair. He had clung to Bobby, but then Bobby pulled away and started to soap up his own hair.
“Look up.” Madeline cooed softly, and John did. “Close your eyes.” He didn’t. No, he would not close his eyes, he wasn’t that foolish. She just went along with it, holding a hand just below his hairline so the soap wouldn’t get into his eyes. Soon enough, the soap was gone and John felt clean, so much cleaner than he ever had before. Madeline checked Bobby after she lifted John out of the bathtub, a fluffy white towel around his body. He stood on a towel on the floor, waiting for Bobby. Madeline made sure Bobby had all the soap out of his hair before she lifted him up and started to dry both of them off.
Bobby giggled a bit as his mom took his hand once they stopped dripping, and started to lead them off to Bobby’s room again. Bobby took John’s hand, and they quickly made it across the hallway and into Bobby’s room, where Madeline shifted through drawers and pulled out two sets of pajamas (a shirt and pants that matched) and two plain grey boxers. A red pair that were just plain, and another that looked like it had puppies running all over it. That one was green. She handed the red ones to John and Bobby took the one with the puppies happily, and each had a pair of boxers. John clothed himself quickly and Madeline put the clothes on a laughing (at first, he soon grew tired) Bobby.
John didn’t need help. But he stood there rather awkwardly once he finished getting dressed. He half thought that Madeline was suddenly going to kick him out, and then he realized just how ridiculous that was. And then suddenly Bobby was finished dressed and Madeline picked him up under the arms and lifted him into bed, having pulled the covers away before. And then she picked up John, placing him next to Bobby. They had to get a mattress for John, if he was going to stay any longer.
John kept quiet since he got his clothes on, and Bobby just let out a sigh and a “Thank you, mom.”
Madeline smiled, pulling the covers up on the two boys. “Sleep tight, Bobby, John.” She tucked them in nice. Yes. She wouldn’t mind having another son, another friend for her Bobby. And then Madeline went and left, but before she did, she turned the switch of Bobby’s car nightlight beside his bed-table on. Bobby never did like the dark much. She left, then, shutting the door behind her. The door clicked as it shut.
Once his mom left, Bobby clung to John, who lay beside him in bed. They were both wet, but John couldn’t resist the slight urge to be held by the warm boy, to hold him back. So he did. Anybody asked, he would blame it on being afraid of the dark, even though he wasn’t. Bobby was, but John didn’t know that yet.
But Bobby hadn’t hugged John because he was afraid of the dark (no, he had his nightlight for that) he hugged John…simply because he wanted to. Because John was his friend. Because…
Because Bobby remembered the Fire and the Ice.
